Jamie Lee's favorite role? Reaching out to help others (VIDEO)

Curtis talks of seizing dreams, beating demons at MCC forum

LOWELL -- Jamie Lee Curtis woke up in Boston Friday morning and had four cups of coffee before 9 a.m.

It was, in part, because she was preparing for the release of the trailer for the 40th anniversary remake of "Halloween," the film that catapulted her to stardom when she was just 19.

But it was also, in part, because she was excited to be speaking at the Middlesex Community College Celebrity Forum later in the night.

Curtis, 59, wasn't dazzled by the bright lights and big stage of the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, but said she spends most of her days excited and in disbelief at the life she has been able to live as a movie star, activist, author and philanthropist.

Former WCVB anchor Susan Wornick, left, applauds a remark by actress Jamie Lee Curtis at Lowell Memorial Auditorium Friday night. Curtis was the featured speaker for the 20th anniversary of Middlesex Community College s Celebrity Forum. (SUN / ROBERT MILLS)

She said it's "crazy to me" that she has the opportunity to speak to and help others as a result of her stardom.

Curtis singled out Nancy Donahue, a well-known Lowell philanthropist who MCC's new arts center on Central Street is named after, as she spoke of the joy of helping others and her excitement about her life.

"That woman is excited to wake up in the morning and seize the day," Curtis said of Donahue.

Curtis spoke for over an hour at the 20th MCC Celebrity Forum, drawing frequent laughs from the crowd, bantering with cheering performing arts students in the auditorium's balcony, and at times growing serious.

"The single greatest thing I ever did in my life was stop a lifelong family disease in its tracks by getting sober 20 years ago," Curtis said.

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Curtis said she overcame both alcoholism and opiate addiction that had ravaged her family, leaving a brother dead at 21 years old.

In the heart of America's opiate epidemic, Curtis silenced the previously laughing crowd when she spoke of her path to sobriety.

"I was a secret Vicodin addict," she said. "I had a minor medical procedure and, like many people, got hooked on the stuff."

Curtis said overcoming addiction helped her find the voice she uses as an activist because it helped her realize that "I'm human, and that I'm flawed, and that I'm vulnerable.

"We're not here to be selfish loners. We're here to be a group of people," Jamie Lee Curtis said during her appearance at Middlesex Community College's Celebrity Forum at Lowell Memorial Auditorium Friday night. (SUN / ROBERT MILLS)

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Curtis also dished on Hollywood, though, saying her "True Lies" co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger is "a good man" who gladly shared the movie's top billing with her.

She said she also once interviewed rapper LL Cool Jay for Interview magazine, and got him to rap about mashed potatoes as the two ate together.

Curtis said the original "Halloween" movie, which was her first feature film and the movie that catapulted her to stardom, was shot in 17 days with a budget of just $300,000.

"It was a little nothing, no-budget horror film," Curtis said. "No one thought it would be anything."

Curtis filmed the movie in 1978, but said working with the small and family-like cast remains "the greatest experience of my life."

Curtis said she was a D+ student with bad SAT scores who was accepted at a small college where her mother was the most famous person ever to graduate. She said she wanted to a police officer or social worker until a friend suggested she try out for a role as Nancy Drew even though she never read the books.

She had a contract with Universal Studios a short time later. But her career got off to a tough start with a TV show that was originally meant to be a movie.

It was called "Operation Petticoat," and it ended up getting her fired.

Curtis said she was "devastated" and feared it could end her career, but that she wouldn't have been available to film "Halloween" had she not been let go.

Jamie Lee Curtis is greeted by Middlesex Community College President James Mabry on stage. (SUN / ROBERT MILLS)

She went on to win two Golden Globes, fame and has since become an author of children's books as well. She has also starred in films including "A Fish Called Wanda," "Trading Places" and "Freaky Friday."

Curtis spoke repeatedly about her love of helping others.

"We're not here to be selfish loners," she said. "We're here to be a group of people."

Curtis is the daughter of actor Tony Curtis and actress Janet Leigh, and told the story of a group her mother is part of called Share, an acronym for Share Happily And Reap Endlessly."

She said her mother and the wives of other famous actors have for decades raised money for the Exceptional Children's Fund in Los Angeles, and despite the self-centered reputation of Hollywood, showed how much fame could enable individuals to help others.

Curtis spoke of her husband, filmmaker Christopher Guest, to whom she has been married for 34 years, and also spoke of her son and daughter, both adopted at birth.

She said her daughter helped prompt her work as a children's book author when the then-4-year-old walked into her office one day and announced that she used to wear diapers, but now goes to the potty.

Curtis said the comment made her realize even a 4-year-old has a past, a concept that struck her so much she wrote a book about it.

Curtis ended the forum, in which she was interviewed by former WCVB-TV news anchor Susan Wornick, with an excerpt from a children's book she wrote after her son asked her, deeply upset, if there is really "a human race."

The boy thought that life was a competition his mother hadn't told him about. In the book she wrote afterward, a boy asks his mom about the race.

"Sometimes it's better not to go fast. There are beautiful sights to be seen when you're last," Curtis said, beginning to choke up. "Shouldn't it be that you just try your best, and that's more important than beating the rest. Should you be looking back at the end, you should judge your own race by the help that you lend."

Proceeds from the annual Celebrity Forum support scholarships for MCC students. Since 2004, 122 scholarships have been awarded totaling $304,500. On Friday night, 17 students received scholarship prior to Curtis' appearance.

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